In-store customer service has been previously provided by a sales associate. For instance, in a traditional situation, a customer enters a retail establishment and proceeds to browse and/or purchase items. The customer may have no preconceived notion of what they wish to buy and may utilize in-store assistance and/or advice to make a purchase. In still other situations, the customer may have an idea of the purchase they wish to make, and yet may still rely upon in-store assistance to make additional and/or other purchases based upon any number of factors including the associates recommendations, sales, advice, etc.
In a traditional on-line setting, a customer visiting an on-line store front receives little or no assistance regarding their shopping experience. Thus, in order to enhance the on-line experience, some on-line retailers have begun to provide additional enhancements to their shopping experience. For example, some websites provide customers with sales ranking, similar sales, on-line reviews, textual chats, etc. to assist an on-line customer in making purchase decisions.
In an offline environment, however, customers traditionally lack buying support other than a traditional in-store assistant. For example, in a typical retail environment, buying support may be provided by multiple actors, such as, for example, floor associates, previously researched reviews and/or product information, and other shoppers present at the same location.
In related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/273,459, entitled “Systems and Methods For Providing A Distributed Mobile Call Center For A Service Establishment,” filed Oct. 14, 2011, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, the inventor describes a system that provides a mobile application service call including service calls to associates within the retail/service establishment. In the disclosure the inventors provide for a system and method that is particularly well suited to a mobile application and that provide the ability for a customer to initiate a mobile video call to receive expert assistance as needed.
While the background systems and methods identified herein, generally work for their intended purpose, the subject invention provides improvements thereto, particularly by providing a customer with a mobile application that enables a customer to find and communicate with various types of people such as sales associates, social connections, etc., in real time or near real time based upon a customer location and/or a identification of what the customer is looking for.